Washington D.C. | January 9th, 2019 – The Regulatory Review’s Year in Review Series featured the article “Whistleblowing is a Key Regulatory Tool,” by former NWC Legal Fellow Aaron Jordan. In the article, Jordan highlights the importance of incentivizing whistleblowers to regulate government agencies and corporations.
Multiple cases made clear that it was up to individual whistleblowers to come forward to speak out against the fraud, as in the case of FBI crime lab, UBS tax fraud, and other cases where corporations defraud the government. Rogers argues that “Whistleblowers on the inside have easier access to evidence of misdeeds, deeper knowledge of the bad actors engaging in unlawful behavior, and greater insights into the methods through which a fraud or theft is being carried out.”
The empirical evidence also supports the claim with 92 percent of the $3.7 billion recovered by the DOJ came from False Claims Act cases brought by whistleblowers. Those who speak out need to be assured that their actions make economic sense.
The SEC whistleblower program has been a success to protect and reward whistleblowers with amounts in 2018 totaling $328 million and recovers of 1.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury. Whereas, other agencies like the U.S. Department of Interior, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife have only documented few payouts through the wildlife whistleblower reward program. This causes rampant wildlife crime, and few individuals stepping forward to protect endangered species.
To ensure that individuals comply with mandated rules and regulation a program incentivizing whistleblowers is necessary across all agencies.
